Modern Regulatory Policy – Ideals and Practice

In this article we examine the preconditions for fulfilling the aims of regulatory reform, exemplified through the case of Norway. We cover both the process of regulatory reorganization and decision-making within established regulatory structures. We argue that regulatory agencies operate in a complex political-administrative context and that we must combine instrumental and institutional perspectives to understand how they work in practice. This is done by applying a transformative approach that embraces organizational-structural elements, interests, cultural components and features from the institutional environment. We describe how a new regulatory reform policy has been introduced in Norway and focus on agency reform processes in two policy areas and on regulatory practice in two regulatory agencies. The main picture is that there is a loose coupling between the OECD regulatory policy ideal and a) general Norwegian regulatory policy; b) the reorganization of regulatory agencies in specific policy areas; and c) regulatory practice in individual cases.